I came up with an idea for a multiplayer game mode last night as I went to sleep...
Similar to Capture The Flag. Two or more teams have bases. Each base have a Hatchery with eggs. Or possibly eggs are with players at start. The eggs must be placed in the Hatchery. Steal enemy eggs and take them to own hatchery. Eggs are respawns. Each player have their own eggs. One player couldn't die 50 times and use all the eggs (in case it there were 50 eggs).
Team members can't steal the eggs of other team members. Stealing enemy egg will give one respawn to the stealer if he manages to bring the egg back to his team's Hatchery. If dropped elsewhere, the egg's previous ownership returns, of course someone must bring it back to the Hatchery for the egg to work. If the stolen egg is dropped to Hatchery when the character dies instead of him dropping it normally, it doesn't matter, the stealing was success.
Eggs are indestructible and they can be colorcoded by team color or neutrality (no specific color). There can be neutral eggs in the map at start, which aren't owned by anyone until they're brought to someone's Hatchery.
Winner team will be the one who has the most eggs when the time ends, or when other teams have no eggs and have died. So even if all eggs from the Hathcery are gone, there's still a possibility for win, or should it end then, or should there be possibility to give egg ownership to someone? I think players should spawn with eggs in their first spawning in the game, so if someone joins when the game has already started, he should have some eggs/respawns.
Capture The Eggs
Capture The Eggs
zbang!
Sounds cool thematically, but it has a sense of "game for game sake", rather than a higher level goal which is risky, causing a need for the eggs.
Perhaps a central opponent, say a Shub, with numerous very potent attacks (lava ball storms, chain lightning, batches of voreballs), who maintains two health variables, one for each team trying to destroy it. You need the lives to stand a chance at killing the Shub, but you are also at risk of being killed by the other team players - and you don't want them respawning enough to maintain enough damage to kill Shub first.
In this case though, I would suggest having an egg represent two respawns for the egg thief, and one respawn for the team queue. Just make sure to clearly message how many respawns you have to work with each time you do respawn, so the player can make a decision on whether to go after Shub, or the other team.
Perhaps a central opponent, say a Shub, with numerous very potent attacks (lava ball storms, chain lightning, batches of voreballs), who maintains two health variables, one for each team trying to destroy it. You need the lives to stand a chance at killing the Shub, but you are also at risk of being killed by the other team players - and you don't want them respawning enough to maintain enough damage to kill Shub first.
In this case though, I would suggest having an egg represent two respawns for the egg thief, and one respawn for the team queue. Just make sure to clearly message how many respawns you have to work with each time you do respawn, so the player can make a decision on whether to go after Shub, or the other team.
...and all around me was the chaos of battle and the reek of running blood.... and for the first time in my life I knew true happiness.